


Trust the Devil

by XWingAce



Category: Lucifer (TV)
Genre: Angst, Deckerstar Exchange, F/M, For Hiromystory, Gen, Reveal, Temporary Character Death, post-s4
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-14
Updated: 2019-07-14
Packaged: 2020-06-28 08:17:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,628
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19808353
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/XWingAce/pseuds/XWingAce
Summary: Dan gets in a difficult situation, and this time, he doesn't get out. Not until the Devil himself intervenes.





	Trust the Devil

**Author's Note:**

  * For [HiroMyStory](https://archiveofourown.org/users/HiroMyStory/gifts).



> Written for the MyFearlessLove Deckerstar exchange for [hiromystory](https://archiveofourown.org/users/HiroMyStory/pseuds%20/HiroMyStory). They prompted me with [Where The Devil Don't Go by Elle Kin](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nl-FfkAxi00). The lyrics of that song, as is it heard in the episode of Lucifer are:
> 
> _Good Lord turned his back on me  
>  Lucifer gonna set me free._
> 
> I hope it's to your taste!

Dan blinks, and he is not where he was. Not that he can remember where he'd been. Just that it wasn't _here_.

The scenery is gorgeous and sickeningly familiar– a hilltop overlooking the lights of LA spread out like a constellation. But that's not where he's looking. Dan is looking right at the place where they found…

Charlotte Richards.

She's standing in front of him, bathed in moonlight, as terrifyingly beautiful as ever. But the expression on her face is the one on the beach, below the pier. It's the one in her office, when he came to her to rekindle the relationship. An expression not of love, or even of recognition. Only of confusion, fear of the unfamiliar. It bites deep, like it did before.

There is a rustling in the nearby bushes. Charlotte turns her head and so does Dan. Pierce steps out of the undergrowth, rifle aimed at Charlotte's heart. He has some of his flunkies by his side, all pointing their guns into the center of the clearing. 

Dan's holding a gun, too. He takes aim at Pierce, but he knows it'll be futile. There are already too many guns in this situation. He might take out one bad guy, but he can never take out all of Pierce's henchmen, too.

To make matters worse, Trixie runs into the clearing from a different angle. She grabs onto his waist and buries her face into his stomach "Dad, I'm scared!" 

It's soon clear _why_ Trixie would be scared, even though she couldn't have seen Pierce yet from her angle

. Jacob Tiernan and Pony Boy follow her into the clearing, both with guns raised, aimed at his little girl. Dan puts one hand on Trixie's back, choosing now to aim at Tiernan. Not that it will make a difference.

"Dan, how could you?" That's Chloe. She's stepping into the clearing to stand beside Charlotte, her own gun raised. The look on her face is the same as when he had confessed to shooting Graham. Betrayal. It hits as hard as the slap she'd given him after that confession. Harder. How had he let it come to this? Again?

Speak of the Devil – or Malcolm Graham, in this case -- there he is, backed up by half a dozen other corrupt cops Dan knew over the years. Well, at least now if the shooting starts, some of the bad guys are sure to be caught in the crossfire.

Now there's a thought. Start trouble, duck away and let the villains take care of each other. But it's an illusion, because even if Dan can get away, that leaves Charlotte and Chloe in the middle of a lead-based meatgrinder. And Trixie still in the path of any stray bullets.

More bad guys are filing into the clearing. Los Xs members, Chinese Triad, Russian Mobsters. It's getting a bit ridiculous now. Dan has to do something. He has stood by too often already. Had let these people – these _exact_ people, in many cases -- threaten his loved ones, innocents and the people he'd been sworn to protect.

He can't help snort to himself. He's no better than any of these guys. He's lost count of the times he's gone against the rules, ignored his oaths. And not, usually, to make sure someone got justice when the rules made justice impossible. No, mostly he'd done it because it was easier, or because it gave him an advantage. And he'd gotten away with it. Until now. He _should_ stay, let himself get obliterated in a hail of bullets. But that doesn't help Trixie, or Charlotte. Or Chloe.

He weighs the gun in his hand. How many bullets does he have? It's not a full clip, that much the weight tells him. Three shots would be enough. It won't save his girls, but it will at least spare them suffering. And get them out of the way, so the villains could shoot each other. And him. But there's no telling how many bullets he does have. There might not be enough.

So who does he shoot first? Trixie, still trembling against his legs? Charlotte, who is now straightening up, her expression hardening into the defiant look she got when she had her teeth in a difficult case. Or Chloe -- who is ignoring him, focusing on the bad guys herself. She's trying to make the same kind of assessment Dan is, no doubt.

Trixie.

Chloe turns to Dan, her eyes first dropping to her daughter and then rising to meet his. Yes. Chloe has come to the same conclusion. Then, her gaze drifts to the path behind him. Her head dips….

And freezes. What? It's not just Chloe who has frozen. Pierce, Tiernan, Malcolm – all the bad guys are completely immobile, like someone paused a video. So is Charlotte. Even Trixie stands there, mid-turn, all her weight on one foot in a position she should never be able to hold like that.

"Daniel?" That's Lucifer's voice. Go figure. He was the one person missing here. He's probably come to pull Chloe and Trixie out of this bastard situation and making fun of Dan. What else is new?

He turns on his heel so he can face the man, coming up the – otherwise completely empty – path. "Go ahead and gloat. I'm sure it's the most constructive thing you could be doing."

Lucifer frowns down at him. "Why would I be gloating?" He shakes his head, dismissing the whole thread of conversation. "More importantly, what are you doing here? What happened?"

Lucifer's concern is… confusing. But he has a point. What _had_ happened? All Dan can remember is opening his eyes here. But he can't remember how he got here. "I don't know, man." Eyes closed, Dan takes a deep breath, racking his brain. Nothing is coming. "I don't even know where _here_ is." It can't be the actual place where Charlotte had got shot, that much he's sure of. That didn't look like this anymore. LAPD had almost razed the place in its zeal for evidence. Also, Charlotte is _here_. "Some sort of a weird nightmare, I guess. So I'm dreaming?" He shakes his head. "I must be even more mad at myself than I thought, if I'm conjuring you up from my subconscious to taunt me." The one man who had actually managed to hurt Chloe worse than Dan himself, worse even than Pierce, just by leaving. And yet she'd still forgiven him, too.

"This isn't a dream," Lucifer responds. "I'm here and you're here." He paces around the clearing, taking in all the threats arrayed there. But his eyes keep lingering on Chloe. "And getting stuck in good, too." 

Dan can't help himself – he puts himself between Lucifer and his ex-wife. That this also puts him between Lucifer and Charlotte is not just a happy coincidence, either. "And 'here' is?"

Lucifer's gaze shifts to Dan. "Hell." His tone of voice conveys the 'obviously' that's not, in fact, vocalised. He puts a hand on Dan's chest. When he lifts it again, he's holding a very fine thread, so thin it would be invisible – if it weren't glowing. He nods. "But you don't _have_ to stay. Yet." 

Dan snorts. Of course. Because even in his subconscious, Lucifer would hold on to the whole "I'm the Devil" schtick. He'd never known the man differently. "You wanna be careful with that, man. Someone might actually take you seriously one of these days."

Lucifer shakes his head. "I generally find little to admire in you, Daniel, but your capacity for continued belief in mundanity despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary is genuinely impressive."

"Thanks. I think."

Lucifer huffs something that is almost a laugh while he shakes his head. He closes his eyes and sighs. Then he turns to Dan, finally truly looking him in the eye. "It is _important_ that you understand right now," he starts. "So will show you something and hope that you'll display your usual stoicism in the face of the supernatural, but that you will then _believe me_." Lucifer takes a step back, squaring his shoulders.

And his face transforms.

One instant, it's the same old Lucifer. The next, Dan is looking at a… a… a freshly scalped head. But not just scalped. Whatever took the skin off Lucifer's head hadn't only taken the scalp – it'd taken his entire _face_. He takes a step back even before he registers the eyes, now burning, blood-red. 

The step backwards bumps him into Chloe and Charlotte, both still immobile. He can't go back further, not without exposing both of the women. So he raises his gun. It's a meagre defense, but it may have to do.

Lucifer hasn't moved an inch. His red eyes burn into Dan before they fade back to their regular dark pupils. At the same time, the death mask retreats, showing Lucifer's usual face again. "Shoot me if you like, Daniel. If it helps."

Dan clicked off the safety, taking closer aim. But then he dropped his arm. It wouldn't do anything. Or Lucifer wouldn't have suggested it. Like it hadn't done anything that time Dan had walked in on Lucifer with bullet holes in his tux. Damn this weird nightmare! He wanted to wake up.

That was it, wasn't it? Die in a dream, wake up. He'd had the solution in his hand the entire time! "I'm not going to shoot you," Dan told Lucifer, while he raised his gun to his own temple. "There's another way out, and I'm taking it."

"No!". Lucifer lunges forward and grabs Dan's gun hand, squeezing like a vise. Dan has to let go or risk breaking his hand. The gun is thrown wide, into the bushes. "Suicide is _not_ the way out, Daniel. It never is. You'd only get in deeper."

Lucifer pauses. "That's how you got here, isn't it?" He waves a hand in the direction he tossed the gun. "Perhaps not quite so direct as a gun to your own head, but something suicidally stubborn, at any rate." He scans across the bad guys arrayed around the clearing again, stopping at the Los Xs members. "Got into another fight with a gang, did you?"

Lucifer turns again, and once more Dan is staring up into his eyes. And this time, Lucifer doesn't move, doesn't speak any more. He stands, too close, towering over Dan. One eyebrow is raised as a facial question mark. It takes two moments that would have been heartbeats – but Dan realises he can't feel his heart beating. 

Then the memories come. It _had_ been another gang. Bikers, drug dealers. Maze had a bounty for two of them and his cases weren’t going anywhere. Chloe hadn't wanted to talk, not really, ever since Lucifer left. What else was he supposed to do? So he had accompanied the bounty hunter into the gang's local. The bikers had… objected to their intrusion. Dan had gotten a few good strikes in, he remembers that much. But then there is a fist coming toward his face, something else hitting him from behind, and…

Nothing. That's all he can remember. Then he was here. Where every mistake at once seemed to be catching up with him. Hell. Oh no. No, no no. "It's all real?" His mouth is dry. He can't shrink away further from Lucifer. But he tries anyway, his back pressing up against Charlotte. He might as well have pressed up against a statue, for all the yield in her limbs.

It's _Lucifer_ who takes a step back, giving Dan space. He nods, simply. There's no glee, no joy in his expression. Only relief, or perhaps it's sympathy. "It is."

"Shit." How long has he dismissed Lucifer's claims? Thought the man delusional, despite his weird mojo, the uncharacteristic strength, the uncanny influence he had on everyone around him. Does it even matter, right now? "So what do I do now? Pray?" Something Dan hadn't done in _years_ , religious upbringing or no. Definitely not since Charlotte's death. All he had been doing at God, if he did anything, was curse.

Lucifer's mouth twitches. Maybe it's a smile. "People have tried. It doesn't usually _work_."

"There has to be a way out." That was what he'd been taught, at least. Hell was Purgatory, a place for people to atone for their sins. A second chance. 

"There are many ways out," Lucifer says, nodding. Almost as if he is impressed. "Most of them lead back in, or to worse places. But there are also ways out to better places. If you can find them." He paces through the clearing, stopping near Trixie. He looks out over the path down the hill. "Very few people have."

It doesn't matter. Even if Dan can get himself out of here… he's _dead_ , isn't he? That's the other hard implication that Lucifer is trying to get into his skull. Oh, his thoughts are working so slowly right now -- there might almost be something to Lucifer's accusations of stupidity. Being dead doesn't feel _so_ bad, if Dan's honest. Not if he takes the insane situation he's currently in out of the picture. And if he _can_ get out of here, maybe he can find Charlotte and set _her_ free. The real one, not this simulation of her still frozen in defiance toward Pierce. Or those are his first thoughts. But then the realisation strikes. There's no way to get back to Chloe, to Trixie either. He'd be abandoning his daughter and his ex-wife. Maze. Ella. And they'd lost so much already. 

Chloe, currently heartbroken and lonely, who had still given him more second chances than _anyone_. Who had given him a first chance, even. Trixie, who loved him regardless. Maze and Ella, both missing a friend but still they always had his back, even when he was being an idiot. "I can't go back, can I?"

Lucifer turns around. His eyes are lit up – with something like joy this time, not hellfire. "Not usually, no. But…." Lucifer raises his hand. Between his fingers is still that glowing thread, fine as spidersilk. "But you're not all the way past the threshold yet, Daniel. You can still have your chance." He holds out his other hand, the one not holding on to the silver thread. "If you'll trust the Devil to deliver you from Hell."

"Why?" If this is all real, and yes it _is_ , panic later – then wasn't Lucifer the one who should be doing the torturing? Or was he looking for another deal? "What's the catch?"

Lucifer shakes his head. "No catch. No favours. No quid pro quo." He lowers his hand, to put it briefly on Trixie's head. "I merely wish to return Beatrice's father to her." Now he approaches Dan, hand held out again more insistently. "While I still can. You're running out of time, Daniel. Time to choose."

He doesn't really have many options, does he? Go along with Lucifer or stay here and solve the dilemma of who to shoot first. It's hardly a choice at all. Dan takes Lucifer's hand.

There's a flash of bright, white light from behind Lucifer's back, and then they are standing over Dan's body. Maze is straddled over him, calling his name and pounding at his chest, double-fisted. The unconscious bodies of various thugs are strewn around the area.

"Here we are," Lucifer says. "Just in time."

"It's as easy as that?" Dan asks. This close, he can feel a pull back to his body. It's slight, but he can feel it getting stronger, too. If he stays here much longer, he'll be pulled back in.

Lucifer huffs. It's not quite a laugh. "This was the easy part. You'll have the hard part now, Daniel." His grip on Dan's arm strengthens, holding Dan back for another instant. "You have another chance. Don't waste it. For your sake, not mine."

"You should stay too, " Dan suddenly thinks to say. "Chloe was devastated when you left. Again. But she'll give _you_ another chance, too."

Lucifer smiles, but his eyes are dark and glistening. "I would like nothing more." He shakes his head. "But I would be squandering any chance I had if I came back now. I will be able to later, I hope." He lets go. "Please give the Detective my regards," are his final words as he turns away. Dan gets one glimpse of shining white wings, the source of the earlier light. 

Then Lucifer is gone and the pull of Dan's body becomes irresistible. One moment, Dan is standing beside his own body. The next instant, gravity shifts and he's on his back, in the dark. Everything hurts. There's a dull pain in his head, and much sharper one across his ribs. His lungs are _burning_. And somehow, his veins are hurting.

He draws a breath, deep, life-giving. It dulls the burning in his lungs. The pain across his ribs, however, stabs deeper and harder. Dan manages a groan. It doesn't help. Opening his eyes brings little change in the darkness, but a weight over his midriff shifts and Maze's face comes into view. Sort of. Her features are blurred through Dan's eyelashes. But it has to be Maze. She was the one sitting on top of him earlier. "Good. Don't you die on me, Dan. Chloe would kill me. And she'd have to get in line behind Trixie."

"Too late," Dan wants to say, but he can't make his tongue shape the words. All he can manage is an incoherent garble as he drifts into unconsciousness.

"Hey." Before he can drift off into painless oblivion, Maze taps his face. "Stay with me. I called for backup after they took you out. Help should be here soon."

Dan can't keep track of exactly how long it takes for help to arrive. It does, eventually. The first thing he notices is when the EMT affixes a neck brace. Then they finally let him fall unconscious, for a little while. When he next wakes up, he's in a hospital room, with a Doctor coming in to examine him and pronounce him _very_ lucky. There's a lot less pain already, not least because of the _good_ painkillers dripping into his arm through the IV. Because he _did_ receive a blow to the head --and he has the LAPD insurance plan -- they advise that he stay the night, for observation and to rule out concussion.

Dan can't help but agree. All he wants to do right now is sleep. For the moment, the doctors and nurses let him. The next time he wakes up, there's a weight on the blanket next to his torso. It's Trixie, sleeping soundly. 

"Hey." The greeting comes only just above a whisper, not loud enough to wake the sleeping Trixie. Chloe gives him a weak smile from her seat next to the bed. "She wanted to come, help wake you up every so often."

"Well, I'm awake," Dan says at the same volume. He puts the hand that doesn't have an IV in it on Trixie's back. She snuggles in a little deeper. He can't help smiling. But then the rest of the day comes back. "Chlo, I'm…"

"You had me worried, Dan. What's going on?" Chloe takes his hand. "I know I've been… distracted, lately." Her gaze goes distant for a few seconds. She sighs. "We've all been through a lot."

"No, this was all on me." Dan shakes his head. "I was being an idiot. Again. And this time I didn't get away with my bullshit. Chloe, I'm sorry."

"The doctor said you were probably fine," Chloe said. 

"Yeah, maybe. But it got _way_ too close this time." Dan let his head fall back onto his pillow. He kept his hand on Trixie's hair, though. "I had this weird… kind of dream. When I first got hit. Or maybe it was a nightmare." It still seems very _real_ for a nightmare. "Do you ever have this – feeling -- when you wake up from a dream and it doesn't let you go?"

"Yeah," Chloe nods along. There's a ghost of a smile on her face when she responds, but it fades quickly. "That can be… unsettling." She takes a breath. "What was it about? If you want to tell me."

"Everyone was coming after me, and Charlotte and Trixie and you, and I couldn't stop them. Nothing I could do that wouldn't end in disaster, one way or the other." Dan shudders, thinking about the situation again. "And I _couldn't_ do anything, either. I froze completely. Like I was trapped."

Chloe's eyebrows rise in understanding. Or maybe it's sympathy. "Oh, Dan…."

Dan shakes his head, not wanting to be interrupted now. "But then Lucifer came in and… froze everyone else. And he pulled me out. Set me free." He strokes Trixie's hair again, causing his daughter to mumble in her sleep. "He said he wanted to give Trixie her father back."

Chloe's hand covers his. "Dan… are you sure?" She speaks gently, as if she's talking to someone on the edge, about to leap.

Maybe she is, because Dan's next words come without thinking about it. "It felt real, you know? Like I could really believe, right then. That Lucifer is the Devil. That he _could_ set me free. From…" He trails off, and now thinks to look into Chloe's eyes. There are tears in them, but she's biting her lip like she's trying to keep a smile from showing, too. She doesn't say anything. "…Hell," he finishes. A heartbeat, and then Dan remembers something else Lucifer had asked him. "He said to give you his regards."

Chloe closes her eyes and looks away. But she _is_ smiling now. She takes a deep breath, then nods. "We should talk."


End file.
